by Marijane Suttor

Created on: September 15, 2008

A college freshman might be shocked by the contradiction that college life holds in order to be successful in college. No longer is there a teacher reminding you to turn in a project. Now teachers expect the student to be responsible or pay the consequence. While on one hand there is more time off instead of an 8:00-3:00 day. Now you might only have two classes on a Tuesday and Wednesday and then have the rest of the day off. At the same time you may have 5-6 finals all on the same week.

So the question for college freshmen, is how do you balance all of the changes, adjustments and studying? These are the top ten study skills college freshmen need to know.

1. Reading comprehension. Freshmen will be required to complete large amounts of reading and sometimes in several classes at the same time. One of the most difficult aspects of this is that it is easy to have the words go in one ear and out the other. Try to break the reading into several groups. Deal only with one group of pages at a time. Develop a good comprehension of those pages before moving onto the next group. This keeps the comprehension in workable amounts that the mind can focus on.

2. Note taking. Many professors post their notes online for students to download. If you have a lap top tablet, it is helpful to add personal notes right onto these downloadable notes. Many teachers add little tidbits that will show up on tests. This is to reward those that come to class and give a disadvantage to those that skip class. Develop a good note taking strategy.

3. Read aloud. It may seem to college freshmen that reading aloud is beneath them. The truth is that there are three components to comprehension: read it, say it and write it. Without any spoken version of the material, comprehension will lower. Don't be embarrassed to read a chapter aloud, especially a difficult one. It forces the reader to pay attention to every word rather than letting the words slip through with no comprehension.

4. Outlining. Outlining can help #1 reading comprehension. Create outlines of the chapters by using bold face print and bullets to break the topic down. This is a great step to do after reading a section aloud. Even if these outlines are never looked at again, the steps of read, say and write will help the information stay in the mind.

5. Discipline. It can be difficult to avoid activities with friends, favorite TV shows, or talking on the phone, but these are just time eating exercises. Although there needs to be time allocated

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